A new career option that you learned about through Microsoft

During the first four weeks of my internship, I worked through the product life cycle of the project assigned for the summer. We had two Project Management mentors walk us through different steps like researching customer pain points, conducting customer interviews, and writing a product specification during this phase.
Before my internship, I knew very little about Product or Project, or Program managers. I remember hearing about this career option from an Alumnus who graduated in 2019 with Computer Science and Business double major. Unsure of what it meant, I guessed it connected business and technology. When I recently met with one Principal Product manager in Microsoft Outlook, she explained to me how technical and non-technical project managers are. The former usually transition into product management with experience from software engineering, while the latter is more business-oriented. She further explained how insignificant the difference between Project, Program, and Product managers is at Microsoft. All three titles are careers that keep the customer's need and the business impact of Microsoft's technology products in perspective. Product managers also monitor the design process by ensuring software engineers follow the planned timeline.
I found this field interesting because I always find myself lost in the technology I am using to develop a product without considering the project's impact. Knowing that there are people whose career is specifically to think about the customer's pain point, possible solutions, and managing the product life cycle is a relief. It was more exciting to know that there is such an option that perfectly merges Business and Computer Science. I can't wait to share my findings with my friends and Computer Science majors pursuing double majors in Computer and Business.

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